Stiff Rudder - Not the Cable

I could use some help problem solving why my rudder is stiff. The steering cable and helm has less than 50 hours. If I drop the rudder and grease the rudder post, the steering feels amazing for about the first 30 mins on the water. Then, it gradually gets stiff again. It seems the grease is temporarily hiding the binding issue and then when it washes away it comes back.

One theory is that I've got the top bolt too tight (the one that gets the safety wire, not the packing nut), which is causing excess friction. Another theory is that the packing nut is sitting slightly too high, which means the tiller arm rubs on the packing nut. Could these be the issue? Any other ideas?

Thanks, you are probably right. The top of the packing nut was sitting a little high and I cranked it down to try to get it flush with the "shoulder" on the rudder where the tiller rests. Should I have instead used 1 less wrap of rope (currently have 3)? Or should I have just left the packing nut a little high?

dshack wrote: After a little more research, I'm thinking maybe my issue is that when I replaced the steering cable, I also replaced the rudder packing with 3 wraps of 1/4" packing (the same number of wraps as what was in there). However, it looks like my 2001 likely used 3/16" packing originally. I'll grab some 3/16" packing and redo it and just hand tighten the packing nut. I'm betting that will solve it. Thanks!

Glad you got it fixed up.